Breslow, Doubront shoulders already acting up

Two Red Sox pitchers — left-handers Craig Breslow and Felix Doubront — will be held back during the early part of spring training because of shoulder soreness.

“Not because of injury situations — just maybe some discomfort and overall strength that they felt in their long-toss program,” manager John Farrell said on Monday. “More precautionary than anything.

“When they got aggressive in their long-toss program, there was some sensation in there, a little bit of irritation. (I) want to be clear that it’s not an injury situation.”

Because of the World Baseball Classic, teams are starting spring training early. That allows the Sox to be cautious.

For the 25-year-old Doubront, however, it’s a red flag given that he threw 161 innings last season. That was by far the most of his career. The Red Sox shut down a tiring Doubront in August with what they said was a knee contusion. He returned and pitched well.

Defending Bobby

Sox owner John Henry is clearly miffed about the book written by former manager Terry Francona and Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, saying it was unfairly critical of team president Larry Lucchino. But he had only good things to say about another former manager, Bobby Valentine.

“It’s always hard to say how much a manager impacts performance,” Henry said. “I think of Bobby Valentine as a great baseball manager, a great mind. It’s clear in retrospect he wasn’t the right man for that group last year.

“I don’t think you can blame Bobby for that. You can blame us. You blame me, you blame Larry, Tom (Werner). I think he should manage again. He’s a great manager for the right team. I think he came in and didn’t want to be disruptive, so he didn’t have his own coaches. In a perfect world, he would have done some things differently. If you ask him, he would have done some things differently coming in.”

Farrell said base running would be a point of emphasis in spring training.

“From the new terminology that will be implemented to what we expect … there will probably be a greater emphasis on that than maybe what they’ve been exposed to in the past,” Farrell said.

Farrell said the intent is to help the players become more aggressive and productive running the bases rather than stealing more bases.

“Outlining what we would look to exploit in certain situations,” Farrell said. “If there’s a matchup between a pitcher and catcher that we can exploit, what we’ll try and do is put pressure on the defense as far as our first-to-thirds.”

Toronto stole 123 bases last season under Farrell, fifth in the American League. The Red Sox stole 97 bases.

Farrell said having a new third base coach (Brian Butterfield) and a new first base coach (Arnie Beyeler) would require extra time spent on in-game communication.

Those who know Ryan Dempster well say the 35-year-old right-hander is a funny guy. The new Sox starter showed a little of that in speaking to reporters.

“I want a chance to face Will Middlebrooks again. He took me deep last year,” Dempster said. “I want a chance to face him again, maybe in (live) BP. I’ll throw one behind his ear or something. But I won’t hit him. He’s my teammate now.”

Dempster also offered an amusing scouting report on new closer Joel Hanrahan.

“He throws cheese, and he’s got a nasty slider and a big, huge, bushy goatee that I think the hitters get intimidated by,” Dempster said. “I know from the other side, playing against him the last few years, when he’s coming in the game, it’s pretty much lights out. That’s a great feeling to have as a team, as a pitcher, when you’re sitting there watching your closer come in and save the game for you. That’s a really, really nice feeling. The whole back end of our bullpen is pretty remarkable right now.”

Dempster expressed enthusiasm for starting the season and helping a new team.

“I like to provide consistency. That’s something over the course of my career I take the biggest pride in,” he said. “I try and take the ball every fifth day as long as I can and go out there and give my best effort and be prepared.”

Farrell was asked what he likes about this particular team.

“The roster is filled with talent. Players that come in new, they come from winning teams, they come from playoff experience,” he said. “I think we’ve got a balanced team. If you just looked at our lineup, there’s speed, there’s power, there’s left/right capability. I think our bullpen is a strength. We know that there’s talent in that rotation, and yet we have to get some guys on track, rebuild some confidence in certain areas.”

With new right fielder Shane Victorino expected to miss three weeks of camp while playing for the United States in the World Baseball Classic, Farrell said it would be a priority to get him on the field with center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury as often as possible. “To me, that’s going to be critical,” Farrell said. “Their understanding of how much range each has and their communication with Shane moving to right field full time, that time that they do have in camp will be critical as far as the reps together. … Farrell spent a good part of his day in individual meetings with the players. He got through everybody except Junichi Tazawa and Koji Uehara. Their interpreter is not due in camp until today. “My Japanese isn’t that good,” said Farrell, who in 2007 took some rudimentary Japanese classes to try and communicate better with Daisuke Matsuzaka. … Is statistical analyst Bill James more involved in roster decisions? “It’s not so much that Bill goes out and makes recommendations. If you ask Bill a question, you get a detailed analysis that is extremely well done. It’s something that we’ve gotten away from, to our detriment, over the years,” Henry said. … Farrell said one of his goals was to improve the tempo at which some of the starters work. … Farrell was asked how much he is like his old friend Francona. “God, I hope I’m not similar,” he said, “except for the success that he enjoyed.”